Notice, too, that all the rubble on the ground is leaning to the right. That's because I'm right handed. It took me a long time to train myself to "break stride" and have occasional pieces of broken stuff lean left!

Yoiks!! Heaven forbid they should have used one of the Kirby covers from that arc!

Say…

QUOTE: Notice, too, that all the rubble on the ground is leaning to the right. That's because I'm right handed. It took me a long time to train myself to "break stride" and have occasional pieces of broken stuff lean left!

Interesting, I never would've noticed that.

First Cap

First X-Men (as with above, in a reprint title)

When I was a kid, the idea was to get as much background information on as many characters as I could in any one purchase. 100-page Super-Spectaculars and Limited Collector's Edition tabloids were among my favorite things in the world. Oh, my god... Soooo much stuff in each one!!

Another key element in the decision of which comic to purchase was how many characters appeared on the cover. A ton of characters, preferably ones I hadn't met before, was a strong motivator. Defenders #62 is a favorite cover for this reason. It also helped if the characters were drawn complete, without overlapping elements. This was so I could cut them out and stage epic, Colorform-style battles between them on the covers of my bed. Fortunately, I outgrew this practice before too many comics suffered. Still, I do wish I knew what became of the envelope I used to keep my collection of cut-outs in... 

In any case, there were so many "firsts" and so many times that I picked up crowd scene covers to find out who everyone was that I usually can't recall exactly which comic was the first time I met this character or that one...

A couple of exceptions to that, however, are... the hardcover collection "Comix: a History of Comic Books in America" which reprinted a number of cool stories, chief amongst them in my memory: "A Visit with the Fantastic Four" from FF #11, almost certainly the first story I ever read with Reed and the gang.

Also, this 100 pager is almost certainly my first Superman comic.

And, I'm going to go ahead and include Defenders #62 as well. While I'm generally unsure whether it was the first time I met this Marvel character or that one, I do know that it was my first encounter with Tagak, the Leopard Lord.

Some others, now that this thread has jogged my memory a little...

First Jay Garrick Flash, a pivotal character for me. (First solo GL story, too...)

First Thundra

First Howard the Duck